Boris Divkovic Foundation: B&H Must Start Facing Birth Dearth

A public discussion ‘The Affiliation of Society to the Family and Youth’ organized by the Boris Divkovic Foundation was held at the Historical Museum of B&H on July 16, 2018. The discussion moderator was Valida Repovac Nikšić, and the participants were Mirza Emirhafizović, Žarko Papić, Nermina Vehabović-Rudež and Neira Dizdarević.
Mirza Emirhafizović, demographer and assistant professor at the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Political Science, explained the current demographic situation and low birthrate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and further concluded that at this moment Bosnia and Herzegovina is severely facing birth dearth and that country’s low birthrate is continuing to decrease.
‘Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently among the bottom ten countries with the lowest birthrates in the world. The current situation in the country is causing such trends, as well as the lack of the social politics in the country that stimulate birth and formation of the families. Moreover, even though youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina leave their parents’ houses quite late, their decision to migrate is increasing, which indicates the country’s approach towards this population category,’ explained Dr. Mirza Emirhafizović.
The analyst Žarko Papić spoke about the socio-economic conditions for family creation and the thoughtlessness of the ruling political elite on the demographic disaster that has befallen Bosnia and Herzegovina.
‘Despite the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina has received the greatest financial aid from the international donors after the 1990s war, it has resulted in completely insensitive social politics and increased poverty rate. As B&H had many young war victims, it cannot afford the current migration of human capital. It is important to emphasize that not only students and poor are leaving the country. The youth over the age of 35 quit good jobs and take with them their entire families,’ concluded Papić.
Neira Dizdarevic, the most active member of the Canton Sarajevo Council, explained how the implementation of the social protection measures are applied and the relation of the current running structures towards the social politics.
‘I have seen many situations that have indicated negligence towards the application of social politics in Canton Sarajevo in my four-year mandate. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that it took me two years to persuade the Council to extract couple of thousands of KM from the budget of Canton Sarajevo, which amounts to about 800 million KM, for the purchase of hospital beds for the mothers who stay with their ill children at the Pediatric Clinics of Clinical Center,’ said Dizdarević.
Nermina Vehabović-Rudež, psychologist and psychoterapist, spoke about the importance of family for the overall mental health.
‘It is essential to have social structure that ensures minimal social security, family, good jobs and qualitative education to maintain mental health. We should all wonder how much of that is currently present in our society,’ discussed Nermina Vehabovič-Rudež.
Although the fact that we have publicly discussed these topics is already a sign of improvement, Boris Divkovic Foundation will raise again this problem at the coming public debates and other activities, and will continue to support the idea of taking the responsibility and solution search.